"Cromwell: God's Executioner"

Last winter the Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes, with colleagues from London Brigade of the Sealed Knot's Army of Parliament, were involved in filming some of the re-enactment scenes for "Cromwell in Ireland" (released as "Cromwell: God's Executioner"), a 2-part documentary series made by Tile Films to be shown on RTE in September and on the History Channel in November 2008. Members of the regiment played the roles of New Model Army soldiers and also some of their Royalist and Confederate Catholic counterparts.

The series is presented by Irish historian Dr. Micheál O Siochrú and examines the history of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. There are also contributions from a range of experts in the period and the programme makers promise the series "will offer fascinating and often controversial new insights into key aspects of the invasion, the motivation of Cromwell and the bitter legacy that still haunts Irish folk memory."



Reviews:

”Ó Siochrú’s recent work, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland, clearly forms the bones of the documentary, with its lavish re-enactments, CGI and excellent direction by Maurice Sweeney.

”If nothing else, it might make production companies think again about the clumsy, ill-dressed re-enactments that have become such a feature of so many low-budget history documentaries on Irish television.

”So, Cromwell in Ireland, made in association with the History Channel, looks good, so good you’d wonder why they didn’t go the whole hog, raise the really big money and make a film of it. It’s waiting to be done.”

Sunday Business Post


"And the two-part drama, which has received rave reviews since it was shown in Ireland last month, packs something of a punch with impressive actor Owen Roe taking the role of Cromwell.

"The production feels more like a mini-film rather than a historical documentary, due to the impressive effects and number of people used to recreate some of the fierce battles which consumed the small nation on Cromwell’s orders.

"But such constructed drama is balanced effectively by actors reading poignant original source material to depict the thoughts, perceptions and memories of those involved in the conflict — including letters written by Cromwell himself."

Irish Post


"Over two parts, this top-class Irish documentary makes the case for and against Cromwell. Presented by historian Micheál O Siochrú, it is sobering viewing, but beautifully made."

Radio Times





"Cromwell: God's Executioner" Photos: Rusty Aldwinckle. There are more photos from the filming here.

The YouTube trailer for the programme is here.

Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes
Regimental Muster List 2008

20th/21st September 2008, Chirk Castle, Wrexham (Mini Muster)


24th/25th August 2008, Belvoir Castle, Leics (Major Muster)


19th/20th July 2008, Faringdon, Oxon (Mini Muster)


28th June 2008, Marston Moor march (as Kyle and Carrick Regiment)


7th/8th June 2008, Waltham Abbey, Essex (Mini Muster)


17th/18th May 2008, Coln House School, Fairford (Regimental event)


3rd/5th May 2008, Kelmarsh Hall, Northants (Battle of Naseby, Sealed Knot 40th Anniversary Event, Major Muster)


12th April 2008, Northampton march (Curtain-raiser for Naseby event at Kelmarsh Hall)


21st/24th March 2008, Caldicot Castle, Monmmouth (Army of Parliament Training event)

Entertaining the crowd at Putney (Photo: ashmorevisuals)

Putney Debates, Putney, October 27-28th 2007

On the weekend of 27th and 28th October, the Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes took part in the 360th anniversary celebrations of the New Model Army's Putney Debates at St Mary the Virgin Church, Putney. The military re-enactment was part of a week-long programme of events to mark one of the key milestones in the development of democracy in England and across the world: the call for a written constitution, universal (male) suffrage, a regular timetable for parliaments to sit, freedom of conscience and equality before the law - the agenda of the radical political Independents or Leveller movement.

We set up a soldiers' encampment in the churchyard overlooking the River Thames and while the regimental goodwives set about cooking food for the assembled company, the menfolk were kept busy on guard duty, performing drill and a variety of other chores. In view of the confined nature of the churchyard, all musket firing took place over the river wall into the Thames and was so loud - due to the sound reverberating round the church wall, the arches of Putney Bridge and the houses on the opposite bank - that visitors claimed to have heard it up to a mile away. The sound also drew a large crowd onto the bridge itself.

On the Sunday morning we were invited by the vicar to join the parishioners and their guests inside St Mary's for the service. The readings were all associated with the Debates and included the well-known words of Colonel Thomas Rainsborough which have rung down through the centuries:

For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under; and I am confident that, when I have heard the reasons against it, something will be said to answer those reasons, insomuch that I should doubt whether he was an Englishman or no, that should doubt of these things.

The congregation took communion to the accompaniment of the soldiers, goodwives and children singing period psalms and religious songs, and contemporary tunes from Alan Radford the regimental piper. Later in the afternoon, as the bells of St Mary's rang a three-hour peal based on an original from the seventeenth century, the regiment provided a guard of honour for a group of civic dignitaries from the House of Commons including Black Rod and the MP for Putney, Justine Greening, who were rowed across from Parliament in a replica seventeenth-century barge.

All in all this was not only a really enjoyable experience, but also a humbling one. Throughout the weekend the churchyard was filled with a large appreciative audience, many of whom stayed for several hours and some returned on the following day. It was a very special thing to be able to march, drill, sing, eat and sleep on the actual site, and on the anniversary of the original Putney Debates.

The Levellers' political manifesto, 'An Agreement of the People', was not, of course, adopted by the Army when the Debates concluded in November 1647, but it contains much that we now hold dear and some things that we still only aspire to. In 2006, readers of The Guardian newspaper voted the Putney Debates as the one neglected event in Britain's radical past that best deserves a proper monument. It now has one: St Mary's has set up a small permanent exhibition inside the nave which is well worth a look, or visit www.putneydebates.com.

See some pictures from the event.